In my humble opinion, India’s backward castes should align themselves with Indian Muslims and Christians rather than with the upper castes. This might sound politically incorrect to some, but let’s call a spade a spade. The brutal truth is: the oppression and humiliation faced by the backward castes came overwhelmingly from the hands of upper-caste Hindus — not from Muslims, not from Christians.
It was not Muslims or Christians who divided Hindu society into Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra. That hierarchical madness — where one group was declared “pure” and another “untouchable” — was entirely homegrown. It was the upper castes who wrote the scriptures, set the rules, and violently enforced them for centuries.
If a Dalit couldn’t enter a temple, it wasn’t because of a Muslim or a Christian. If a lower-caste child couldn’t sit with others in school or drink from the same well, it wasn’t the mullah or the padre who stopped them. The daily degradation, the inherited shame, the social boycott — it all came from fellow Hindus. From the so-called “twice-borns.”
And yet, every election season, we see backward castes being mobilized as foot soldiers by upper-caste dominated parties. The very people who were never allowed to live with dignity are now used to protect the same structures that once crushed them.
It’s time to ask: Why this misplaced loyalty?
Indian Muslims and Christians, for all their differences, never institutionalized caste the way upper-caste Hindus did. In fact, many among them have also faced their own forms of discrimination and exclusion. There’s more shared history of pain and resilience between the backward castes and these minorities than there is with the elites of Sanatan Dharma.
As Dr. B.R. Ambedkar once said:
“Hindus want Vedas, and caste system and also democracy. That is impossible. If you want democracy, the caste system must go.”
Ambedkar saw no salvation for Dalits within the Hindu fold. That’s why he converted to Buddhism and told his followers:
“I was born a Hindu, but I will not die a Hindu.”
Periyar, the fierce rationalist and anti-caste crusader from Tamil Nadu, said it even more bluntly:
“The Brahmin considers it a sin to eat with a non-Brahmin, but sees no sin in exploiting the non-Brahmin all his life.”
He repeatedly urged backward castes to leave behind the illusion of Hindu unity and to reject the religion that insulted their humanity.
“There is no God. There is no God. There is no God at all. He who created God is a fool. He who propagates God is a scoundrel. He who worships God is a barbarian.”
So why not forge solidarity? Why not build a new axis of political and social unity — one that is based on shared suffering, shared resistance, and a shared dream of dignity?
The enemy of your oppressor is not your enemy.
It’s time for backward castes to stop being the loyal workers in someone else’s empire. It’s time to build their own.